Today, communications service, and especially, inter-exchange communications service, has become intensely competitive. In the past only a single carrier provided inter-exchange service, but now there are many inter-exchange carriers, all competing for the same subscribers. To increase market share, many inter-exchange carriers provide various incentives, including service discounts and outright cash payments. Unfortunately, such incentive programs are expensive, and often lead to "churning" whereby some subscribers enroll with an inter-exchange carrier to take advantage of an incentive, and then switch to another carrier to enjoy the incentive offered by that carrier.
Given the high cost of acquiring new subscribers, it is generally cheaper to retain existing subscribers. To that end, inter-exchange carriers maintain and advertise different loyalty programs in an effort to reward loyal subscribers. Advertising, particularly on television, and in print, is expensive, and it is often difficult to maintain an ongoing campaign for a long period of time because of funding constraints and changing priorities. Direct mail advertising is also expensive and often may not yield high subscriber awareness of a particular loyalty program.
Present-day loyalty programs also suffer the disadvantage of requiring that the subscriber respond in a particular manner to obtain the reward. For example, some programs require that the subscriber make arrangements with their inter-exchange carrier in advance via mail or phone before the subscriber may enjoy the reward. To enable their subscribers to take advantage of various reward programs, the inter-exchange carriers must provide the necessary support personnel to manage and maintain such programs, increasing overall costs.
Moreover, some subscribers, for what ever reason, fail to redeem the loyalty reward issued by their inter-exchange carrier, especially if the subscriber perceives the redemption process as being onerous. While the carrier may derive a financial benefit if subscribers fail to redeem their loyalty reward, subscribers who do not redeem will not associate any benefit in remaining loyal to the carrier that offered the reward. If subscribers fail to redeem their loyalty reward, the inter-exchange carrier providing the rewards may not achieve its goal of retaining such subscribers.
Another problem with many inter-exchange carrier reward programs is that such programs fail to provide the subscriber with instant gratification. For example, a reward program that offers subscribers a discount at various merchants provides no immediate gratification unless the subscribers intend to purchase something from an eligible merchant at that very instant. It is far more likely that a subscriber receiving a discount coupon for merchandise will likely store the coupon, and after a brief interval, may even forget about its existence.
Inter-exchange communications carriers may not be the only type of communications carrier that may be required to offer a reward program. As local service communications carriers begin to compete among themselves for subscribers, such carriers may also be forced to institute reward programs. Similarly, INTERNET service providers may also be forced to institute reward programs.
Thus, there is a need for a reward technique for subscribers of a communications carrier that requires substantially little effort on the part of the carrier and provides immediate gratification to the subscriber.